Archive for October 24th, 2011

Most of people against Pearltrees or other curation tools say there’s no cash-flow below. But they’re definitely wrong.

OpenSky a curation / e-shopping platform, has a very strong business model.

The core principle is simple: once you’ve logged in, you follow experts / stars you trust. They recommend you products or services. It’s not only following celebrities like in a bundle package; it’s really a value added as he/she curates items depending on their scope of expertize.

The curation promise is linked to other leverages:

social currency & social gaming : you earn credits anytime a friend joins the platform. You can also earn credits once you win or satisfy some missions. Brand content projects can be pretty numerous

couponing : picked items also have “deals”. It’s both addictive (as Private Outlet or Asos.com) and relevant for the consumers

One more time, “opinion leaders strength” + “recommendation power through WOM” is a good combination. The growing influence of Twitter as a business case (they’ve finally entered the entertainment business…) is decisive.

Good news for curation start-ups: filtering data and making the web more physically-manipulable is key.